TABLE WITH TOYOHARA (HOSHIMOTO) CHIKANOBU (1838-1912) JAPANESE PRINTS

Dining table in golden wood with rectangular top decorated by three ancient Japanese prints, cm 51x105x58 Wooden prints, an Ukiyo-e painter, Toyohara (also known as Hashimoto, but Toyohara is more used) Chikanobu (1838-1912), active in the Meiji period (1868-1912). Before being an artist of the "fluctuating world" (Ukiyo-e) he was a samurai. Those three prints combined together depicts a moment (called "Evacuation") of a Series created by Toyohara between 1895-1896. The artist had been inspired by an episode that occurred in 1844, when a terrible fire broke out in Edo's Castle (Edo is the old Tokyo), where his mother, his wife and his concubines lived; the area was completely banished to males and that is why the guards depicted here are women.